Judicial Externship to Clerkship Forum

[FutureisFintech]

So, I'm in a bit of a dilemma.

I recently interviewed with a few clerks to extern for a judge in the Central District of California, for the summer of 2021. However, I've already accepted an offer as a Summer Associate at a V5 NYC firm. Externships for this judge are full time; I'm unable to split my summer between the V5 and the externship. I made the clerks aware of my situation and, while they both agreed I would be unable to participate in a summer externship, they would consider me for the Fall.

Here's where the problem(s) start.

1) Graduation Req
If I am selected for a Fall externship and it is in person, I would have to move to Los Angeles (I go to law school in Washington DC, but attended undergrad in LA). Because it is a full time position, I am unsure whether or not I would be able to take any classes at school (depending on whether or not my law school decides to hold in person classes or not). This is a problem for me because I am required to take PR and Evidence, in order to graduate. I could take both courses my 3L Spring semester year, but I'd really like to get the MPRE out of the way in the Fall. However, externships take up 13 credits at my school, and each one of these classes is 3 credits; I can't go over 15 credits without paying extra for classes.

2) GPA
Additionally, I'm trying to graduate with honors. I'm currently at a 3.59 and the cum laude cutoff is roughly a 3.75. I would essentially only get 1 semester to raise my GPA (not including my current semester) to raise my GPA to this level. However, my grades are not as set as because my second semester 1L grades were made pass/fail, which did not weight my numerical GPA.

3) Clerking
I want to clerk, specifically in the Central District of California. The two law clerks who I spoke with both had externed for the Judge I want to extern with. I believe that if I were to extern with this Judge, my chances of landing a clerkship in the Central District increase.

So these are my questions: Should i continue to pursue this externship? And, without having any judicial internships/externships on my resume, will I still have a chance at clerking?

[nixy]

I wouldn’t sacrifice as much as this externship would require. Moving to LA for a semester for a judicial externship seems excessive.

It’s also not at all necessary that you do a full time externship to get value out of it (this judge may only hire full time externs, but most don’t have that requirement).

Can you raise your gpa .16 in one semester? (Just mathematically?)

Why not look for a part-time fall externship local to your law school? I’m sure if you start now you could find something.

Finally, I don’t think judicial externships, in themselves, move the needle much. You can definitely get a clerkship without one. The benefit is more getting to know a judge who may be able to vouch for you in future, but doing an externship in itself doesn’t actually guarantee this.

That said, this one sounds a little different in that the judge clearly hires his previous externs as clerks (some judges don’t hire previous externs as a matter of policy, but that’s not an issue here). So it does sound like there’s a greater chance that it would slot you into a clerkship than with most externships. (But to be clear, it would be the opportunity to make a connection to the judge that helps, not having the externship on your resume really.)

I tend to think this all requires a little too much for a potential but by no means guaranteed benefit. To be blunt, how do your stats compare with these previous clerks? Do you go to a school that this judge has hired clerks from before? (You sound like a strong candidate from what’s listed here, but still.)

I probably wouldn’t bother, but I also wouldn’t be committed to clerking in the CDCA just because clerking is so tough to predict, even for excellent candidates. So I suppose it depends how much you want to go all in on trying to improve your shot at clerking. If you don’t get a CDCA clerkship, will you regret putting all this effort in, or will you kick yourself for not trying?

[crazywafflez]

Agreed completely with Nixy. This seems like a lot of an externship. I don't think externships really make a big difference and I think you'd be fine just finding a local judge in the DC area.

[mjb447]

I agree with nixy. There are a lot of moving parts here, but it sounds like the biggest positive about this externship is that it *could* increase the likelihood that you'll be able to clerk in the CD Cal specifically. Externships normally don't move the needle that much, though - this externship will have basically zero value anywhere else if you change your mind or broaden your horizons, and it's in no way necessary to extern if you want to clerk - and it's unclear to me how much independent work the externship did to get the judge's current clerks in. You'll also pay a lot to move there and really gum up your class schedule and, potentially, your limited ability to raise your GPA.